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Well, funny that you speak of it, considering there's a thread about the game here.

So i'll say, while there is a lot to like about GtI, there are a ton of nagging issues with the game that bog it down quite a bit.
-So few new Pokémon, as you already mentioned.
-People claiming the story was too short. Maybe it's just me but I never really felt that way, I feel it moved really slow, on the contrary.
-Not much post-game content.
-The slow text speed in cutscenes that can't be sped up.

Those are just some complaints that come to the top of my head that I think are worth mentioning.

I just finished the demo last night, and I'm seriously debating on buying the full game now lol. From what I played I enjoyed it. A bit too much dialog is my only complaint. I should note that this is the first time I've ever played a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, so I don't have the previous ones to compare it to.

I just finished the demo last night, and I'm seriously debating on buying the full game now lol. From what I played I enjoyed it. A bit too much dialog is my only complaint. I should note that this is the first time I've ever played a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, so I don't have the previous ones to compare it to.

I would recommend the previous PMD games, particularly Explorers of Sky and Red/Blue Rescue Team.

If you like to use emulators, you could download Desmume or NO$GBA to play Explorers of Sky and Blue Rescue Team, or download Visual Boy Advance and a Red Rescue Team ROM.

If you don't want to use emulators, you should just buy Blue Rescue Team and Explorers of Sky.

I will say aside from Jellicent, Liepard, Sawsbuck and Reuniclus, the other pokemon are a bit redundant or forgettable. These three pokemon were also excluded from Conquest. Why? I can see the other ones as they don't evolve and/or are not popular. (forgettable)

Also, some of the pokemon available from past generation were sort of random. I get pikachu and the eeveelutions, but Toxicroak, Dunsparce, Quagsire, and Purrugly? (I personally like Purrugly, but I know it's not a popular pokemon by any means.)

All together, there was just under 150 pokemon available, which is enough, but there could have been improvements made to the pokemon selected. Though, they did a good job at excluding some gen 5 pokemon that were not too popular aside from a few choices.

Anyway, the gameplay, graphics, and selection (for the most part) were done well. The thing that prevents me from picking up the 3ds and playing this game is the excruciating dialogue. It's just stupid. Not to mention long! Sure it's a kiddy Pokemon game, the dialogue will not be groundbreaking, but this is just awful and it's that much worse I have to sit there for upwards of 15 minutes pressing A, again, for an equivalent or less, 10-15 minutes of gameplay. I would have been fine with the simple storyline if it weren't so long.

Graphics: 9
Music: 7
Selection: 8
Battle Mech: 8
Storyline: 3

What otherwise could have been an 8.0 game (GREAT), the story-line drags this game to a 6.0-6.5. (OKAY)

Compared to the previous PMDs, it was really, really bad. It didn't even meet the standards that the previous ones had set in every single category, except for maybe graphics.

I won't list everything that was wrong with GTI since I've basically done so in every PMD thread in this section. But the biggest problem for me was that it was JUST aimed at kids. I know, Pokemon is generally for kids, but just bear with me. The dialogue, the simple and short storyline itself, and wow, even the text speed all make this a kid's game imo. But the previous PMDs all had a more "mature" storyline that could be enjoyed by all ages - I played Red about five times as a child and then played it twice years later, enjoying it just as much. I could probably replay Gen 4 PMD a thousand times. GTI? I couldn't even finish. I wouldn't be so disappointed with GTI if the previous PMDs were also like GTI in terms of dialogue and storyline, but they weren't.

After that I just destroyed every pokemon I saw.
I was told I had to save everyone, which was like "Oh, Ok."

Kinda ruined the mystery as to why you're a pokemon...

For what it's worth, I actually thought this was the most interesting part of GTI's storyline. [Spoilers follow] I found the light part very interesting, and especially how they brought a lot of heroes - although it made me kinda sad since it made the hero "less important" in a way - it also made more sense since what if the hero in the previous games wasn't able to do it? I dunno. It was poorly executed, but I thought that it was kind of interesting. They should have touched upon it more in the game.

Sit down kiddies and I will tell you everythingI don't like about Gates to Infinity. I feel very strongly about this, because Explorers of Sky was my favoritest game ever and when I saw the gorgeous 3D graphics for Gates to Infinity I was so very excited. I had very high hopes. High hopes that were crushed into the ground. ^,^ Sorry if this is a little negative, but hey, you asked.

Alrighty...

Spoiler:

#1: THE HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE SELECTION. I will not accept this as "fair". Not only can you only choose between only five pokemon to play as yourself and your partner (as opposed to 19 in Explorers of Sky; 21 as your partner), there are only 144 pokemon in the entire game to recruit onto your team (as opposed to pretty much every single pokemon ever, including almost every legendary, in Explorers of Sky). Out of a total of 649 pokemon as of the fifth generation, there is really no excuse to include so few. I don't care how good the graphics are; to me, it doesn't at ALL make up for the immensely poor selection of Pokemon to meet in Gates to Infinity. One of my favorite things in Explorers of Sky was seeing all my favorite adorable pokemon and finally recruiting them onto my team. It was so much fun. Of course, didn't feel any of that in Gates to Infinity.

#2: The story. Okay, I'll admit the story was alright. It had me smiling and crying at the end; but, so did the previous Mystery Dungeon games. The issue I had was how simple and short it was. And once it was over..... it was really over, there was almost nothing to do after defeating the main storyline, except expand your paradise, which to be honest is really boring, at least in my opinion. In Explorers of Sky, defeating the main storyline was just the beginning. There was still a LOT to do, and not just tiny little side quests, you still had huge things going on in terms of the story! That was amazing, I put SO many hours into Explorers of Sky and I hardly even finished it all in my last file. Don't even get me started with the "Side Quest" stories. Those were amazing and not only provided more unique gameplay as someone other than yourself, it provided a backstory for many characters. Which brings me to my next point...

#3: Lack of Closeness to the characters. In Gates to Infinity, I didn't feel close to the characters at all. You might be thinking "Well, so? It's just a video game. About Pokemon." Well yeah, I shouldn't expect anything special; but again, I was heavily spoiled by Explorers of Sky, because in that game, I really felt like I was part of a family. Living at the guild and being part of a system, with an organized job to do, made me feel so emotionally close to all of them. Not to mention those times when the other characters would really come through to save our behinds or just show genuine support... I love each and every one of them and even now, as I type this, I really miss them. Might sound silly, but I think it's a wonderful wonderful thing that a Pokemon game was able to make me feel so intimate with the other characters. Definitely did not feel this in Gates to Infinity. At all. u.u In fact the characters mostly feel very forgettable for me... blah.

#4: DLC. The fact that DLC was introduced this time around just really really bums me out. Luckily there wasn't too much that required DLC to unlock, but one beautiful thing about Explorers of Sky was that all I had to do to unlock EVERYTHING the game had to offer was to keep pushing on. I unlocked all the awesome dungeons from hard work and perseverance, not... taking money out of my bank account. That takes the fun out of it for me. WHICH REMINDS ME:

#5: Lack of awesome dungeons! There weren't even any cool dungeons to unlock anyways! There were hardly any new places to go after finishing up the storyline (none that were fun, anyway). In Explorers of Sky, you were still, even after completing the story, constantly unlocking new awesome dungeons, with new awesome pokemon, some even legendaries! That was really exciting by the way, recruiting the hidden legendaries. In Gates to Infinity, Keldeo and Virizion just kind of........ join you. They just ask and that's it. *sigh* Yet another thing that just takes the fun out of things.

#6: Just a bunch of other small annoying things. For whatever reason, Gates to Infinity also had a bunch of annoying little things, like the fact you don't recover HP by walking in any unusual weather (including harsh sunlight and rain... I mean seriously), not allowing you to take more than one job at a time (even in the same dungeon), S L O W T E X T S P E E D, not letting you play as a female, downgrading wondermail, and more. Of course, they also added a few small neat things, such as TMs being reusable (as per the new mainstream games) and cute minigames, but really in my opinion, they do NOT in any way make up for the negative. ]: The amount of bad heavily outweighed the good for me, for all reasons explained above.

Also, I have mixed feelings about the fact they got rid of hunger. I can take it or leave it. On one hand that's cool because it's one less thing to worry about, but on the other hand, Hunger really increased the difficulty of getting through dungeons in previous games; is it just me or did Gates to Infinity feel a heck of a lot easier? Maybe that's why they did questionable stuff like take away being able to naturally recover HP in unusual weather, I don't know, but it doesn't feel balanced at all to me.

I have mixed feelings about dropping the Personality Test in the beginning, too; While the personality test was a very charming touch, I always ended up manipulating my answers to get the character I wanted anyway, so getting rid of it honestly just saved time, for me.

TLDR: There was a lot of disappointments, but it's really only because original fans like me were completely spoiled by Explorers of Sky, and had high hopes for the next one being even better. So when the game didn't have nearly as much to offer as the game before it, it just kind of... leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth. Of course it's a good game if you aren't expecting much, ESPECIALLY if you're just used to the mainstream games, but for those who held it to an Explorers of Sky standard..... it was just......... disappointing.

Well that was a lot of effort, hope that answers your question hehe. Of course, this is all just my opinion, but it also echoes things I've constantly heard among many many other players as well.

For those wondering if they should buy this game, I think it really depends on how much you're expecting. If you've never played a previous PMD game but want to try out Gates to Infinity (and you have moneys lying around), do it! In fact if you plan to play previous games, it might be best to start with Gates to Infinity, so you can get the most out of the experience. But either way, I definitely recommend you get your hands on the previous games as well, especially Explorers of Sky. ^__^ <3

I liked GtI (not as much as the previous PMD games), but I was bummed at the small Pokemon selection, like I'm sure most people were. That and it didn't have very much postgame.

Storyline wasn't as great as prior ones, but it made me cry more than the other 2 (probably because some of the friendship themes were so darn RELATEABLE at the time, as I was dealing with bullies on another site at the time I played through). Plus the fact that you gotta pay for the extra dungeons (more of an issue back when I first got it, as I had limited money, but that's a non-issue at this current time).

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I think that while it is a good game, it's nowhere close to the level of the other PMD games. Compared to the other games it's short, there's a pitifully small selection of available Pokémon, I don't like the fact that you chose the Pokémon you are, and the boss is just disappointing.
However the story is nice (I actually started to cry at the end), i at least did not see the plot-twist coming and the graphics are just amazing.
It would be great as a first PMD game, as you then have to experience with the rest of the series and thus can't compare them.

Now that I've played the full version of the game (I made it to the credits and am now doing the epilogue), I think I can give my take on why GTI has gotten criticism.

I love it because it's charming, the characters are all really memorable and full of personality, and I actually think the story was pretty well done. I think the biggest problems with the game are the pacing and the dialogue. A lot of the dialogue is really bloated and redundant. Everything is over-explained. While I'm scrolling through the dialogue I often find myself saying "Ok, we get the point!"

On top of that, the core gameplay of exploring dungeons is redundant. You just wander around mazes, running into a few bad guys occasionally until you finally reach the stairs. What's at the top of the stairs? The same thing ad nauseum. Thirteen floors later...

But I love the characters and the story so much that I'm willing to endure the tedium that makes up 95% of the game

This was the first Mystery Dungeon title I played all the way through. Dabbled with Red Rescue Team but only played that for thirty minutes max.. so this is coming from someone with little experience on the MD series.

My main two gripes were that there were very few Pokemon to play as. The selection was absolutely awful in comparison to the choices you were given in the previous games. Then there's the text speed.. oh my gosh I dreaded replaying this game because the text went by super slowly and the cutscenes, for whatever reason, weren't skippable. Very bad move on the creators' part because some scenes took around ten minutes to complete so I ended up setting my 3DS aside and doing other things in the meantime, hah.

The characters were really full of personality though and I cried towards the end, I admit. Would've liked more characters in the towns to interact with as I felt the game had too many generic ones who said the same few lines when spoken to.

I'm only 6 hours into the game but right now there's only 2 things that are really bugging me about it. So far the story is a bit slow, but not slow enough to lose my interest. I'm sure I'll be reaching some sort of fugitive chapter here shortly.

Wait... seriously?
ad 1: They removed the only part of the game that actually provided some challenge?
ad 2: We cannot do more than one request? Come on, tell me that's not true... doing 4 quests from one dungeon was awesome.

I turned it back in to GameStop the day after I got it. The hero selection was...eh. The story was too slow and it lost my interest. The whole Victini thing was annoying. Dungeon exploration felt...bland to me. And honestly, I just didn't see it worth my time. I could just replay Blue Rescue Team or Sky, since I have both in my collection. Much better games.

The only thing I liked was the graphics. Improved, certainly. However, I'm a nostalgic guy who likes the older graphics more.

I miss the map. It helps me visualize the pokeworld and where each dungeon is. I would like if they include all pokemon plus megas in one game in a future mystery dungeon game. Many didn't like this but I liked the friend areas in red and blue but i guess that with so many pokemon it would be a little difficult to manage that way. They could always include calling from a list and friend areas so you have to chose from. A good story would be with the Kalos region trio. After that they could include a lot of post game fun with all other legends like they did in red and blue and time, darkness and sky.

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